Zucchini

I have wanted to try dehydrating zucchini, so yesterday I did.  I used a large holed grater so they looked chunky and spread it all out on 5 trays.  The dry zucchini  filled a pint jar 2/3 full.  Not nearly enough but now I am looking forward to using them, maybe in soup!

Accomplishments:

• Sunday 9/1           Picked plums (not ripe enough)
• Monday 9/2          Made 2 batches of jam (they taste very good)
• Tuesday 9/3          Going to my parents (not quite, drove to the VA TWICE, UGH!)
• Wednesday 9/4     Spent 6 hours lugging boxes down a flight of stairs 
• Thursday 9/5         More of the same (exhausted)
• Friday 9/6             And more!   Arranging and post prices for a garage sale.
• Saturday 9/7         Garage Sale day!  6 hours (exhausted)
• Sunday 9/8           About 3 hours to clean up, pack up for goodwill pickup, Finally!
• Monday 9/9          Pick plums, it's hot out there.  Cut up and fill dehydrator.
• Tuesday 9/10         Make a batch of jam (and bread, brown rice and quinoa)
• Wednesday 9/11    Make a batch of jam and half fill dehydrator (used them up).

So the garage sale project has been in the works for 3 years now.  A very good friend of my moms has Alzheimer's (I have know her also for about 40 years).  She was so artistic and had a very large room full of sewing, knitting, floral supplies, paints,   quilting, etc.   Junk had also found it's way in, the theory being the Alzheimer's had affected her bringing home stuff that people had pawned off.  When I first saw the room, my jaw dropped.  It was the show "Hoarders" and I wanted to quit before we even started.  That first year we only pulled out garbage or contributions.  At least 50 big black bags worth in 3 years.   The garage sale was HUGE with only a quarter of what was left in the room, filling 7 tables and in boxes on the floor of the covered parking.  I thought a lot more would go, my guess is we packed up 2/3 for charity.  Sales netted quite a bit at .50 and .75 prices.  It is now finished, what a relief.

The plums came from my sister in law, my trees did not produce this year.  I have never seen so may on one tree.  One branch that was 15 feet straight up had bent over almost the the ground.  The tree is still fully loaded. An overload of dishes!  my guys didn't do any while I was gone and the fruit production has added doubled the days work.  We don't use a dishwasher.  I am tired!

I have also started on Christmas presents!  And a afghan project started before we moved in this house (maybe 7 years ago)  It's called a crayon colored pattern, knit on the diagonal with 2 yarns.  One yarn is the same constant color and the other changes constantly!  It uses up the little leftover balls that sit around getting tangled up.

Yeah !!

Filled my son's truck with garbage.  What was left from my last sort and toss, some house garbage and some from outside.  We came back and loaded 6 bags of pop cans, his aluminum scraps and steel scraps.  He made $24 and I made $20.  There is regular recycling and some stuff for Habitat for Humanity left to take.  (The truck loads are always in a small truck)  The basement is getting better!

Update
We took one load out of the basement a couple days later.  Half to H. for H. and half to Goodwill!

Keeping busy with

putting up the tent to air it out,  it's clean  and in good repair. Still.  Also looked over the tarps, then put it all away again. I will take it to my parents next week  and camp out in their yard.  My kids will come, grandgirls and my brother and family from Oklahoma.  I am excited.  Seeing my brother is an every 2 or 3 year event.

Last week I made some bike panniers for my son for the front.  They hang from the center of the bike on a front rack.  He modified a rear rack and had a buddy weld a bar on both side.  After constructing the bag, he put together a rigid insert for the pocket on the inside to hold it away from the tire, modified some metal supports that reinforce corners in construction into hooks.  He is pleased with them.  He also made 5 gallon bucket panniers for the back.  After the first caping trip, I had to modify them a bit and now he is off again.

On the news . . .

. . . .  tonight the weather comment for our area " 61 degrees and over for three days in a row is considered a night time heat wave".  The reasoning being is that we are not used to any heat overnight. (I had to laugh) For so may years now, I have have always read or heard from the experts that tomatos can be planted outside when the tempuratures reach 60 degrees everynight. NOT here! We have had warmer than usual nights for an early summer especially after last year (so cold, that the comforter stayed on the bed till mid July, it's been off the bed for a month now).

Rain, rain come again!

Summer rain, soft gentle droplets that are cool on the skin and welcome!  The air is warm and close, no wind at all.  Trees rustle and ping under the gentle movement of the rain, the dry grasses whisper.  Nature is making music, again.  If you stop and listen, be still; we are rewarded with beauty.  So outside I have to go, to take in the beauty that nature offers.  It's 11 pm at night, the darkness wraps around me with a feeling t=of security, yet I feel freedom.  Then the sounds of the highway break thru! Bah humbug, a very discordent,  human interference.

Rain, real downpour rain is desparatly needed.  June is usually a very wet month, not this year.   We have not had a drop of rain in July.  This soft rain is dry almost as it hits the ground.  Please RAIN!!!

I love our green cool springs and summers, so far it's too dry (also a recipe for fires).

It will never happen fast enough . . .

. . .  but my community had a town sponsored spring clean event at which you could dump for free.  I don't mind the dump fees but it is the electronics that can cost money to get rid of.  Since I don't have a truck available my little car was filled with 2 medium sized TV's, 2 old CPU's and 2 monitors.  More out the basement.  Now I need a truck for 3 dressers and a desk.  My husband said NO to putting them out in front of the house (it's done a lot around here).  Maybe I will put one out and see what happens!